National Bank of Egypt is set to sign a loan worth US$15 billion with SANAD Fund for MSMEs, of the German state-run Kfw Development Bank, within this week. The loan is tailored to help NBE, Egypt's biggest state-run bank, expand into financing small and medium-sized enterprises in the country, an official source from the bank told Amwal Al Ghad Sunday. NBE plans to lend a maximum of US$500,000 for each client. This comes after NBE had entered into negotiations with a number of international financial institutions to get loans of US$1 billion during the current fiscal year to support SME projects, the source added. The Egyptian bank had managed to sign foreign loans totalling US$850 million with international financial institutions in the past fiscal year 2014/15. Elsewhere, NBE has lately signed an agreement worth €120 million on the third phase of Egyptian Pollution Abatement Project (EPAP) with the European Investment Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD).
